Snow brakes are used to prevent accumulations of snow from sliding off inclined roofs. With the use of a snow brake, accumulated, snow is allowed to melt, or sublimed directly to vapor while retained in place on the inclined roof.
Accumulations of snow that slide off roofs can cause injury to people or damage to property there-below due to the weight of the snow, the speed at which the snow falls, and the unpredictability of when and how much snow will slide off the roof. Snow brake systems are of particular use with metal planar roofs, where minimal frictional resistance and the planar surfaces contribute to the sliding of the snow.
Planar metal roofs are commonly used in industrial applications, such as factories or shops. Due to the type of work commonly associated with factories or shops, people, vehicles, and other equipment is often moving in and out of such buildings. Further, these types of buildings commonly also have irregular heating patterns. For example, a factory may have a heated office, an unheated loading area, and industrial machinery that puts off large amounts of heat. All of these different areas may be contained under a single roof. These irregular heating patterns can lead to irregular melting patterns of snow on the roof. Irregular melting patterns can lead to unpredictable time and places that snow slides off of the roof. Even further, there may be many people unfamiliar with the configuration and possible dangers of the building, such as independent trucking operators. The combination of the unpredictable melting patterns and the people unfamiliar with the melting patterns leads to risks of possible injury to people and equipment.
Similarly, many homes, residences, cabins, ski condos, recreational properties, and resorts in snowy locales also have planar metal roofs, and are subject to similar issues. For example, many homes have wood burning stoves or similar heating apparatus, which lead to irregular heating patterns. Further, many of these types of buildings have attached covered areas that are not walled in, to park equipment or store wood for example. These covered areas may be attached to the same roof system as the home. Again, this leads to an irregular heating pattern between the home and the covered area. In addition, the nature of these types of buildings, in that they may not be occupied regularly, leads to similar risks. Further, children, animals, or even adults who are not aware of the possibility of sliding snow may be in danger of injury. Again, the combination of the unpredictable melting patterns and the people unfamiliar with the melting patterns leads to risks of possible injury to people and equipment.
In locations that receive significant amounts of snow, there is also significant amounts of freezing. Therefore, ice dams or other accumulations of snow and ice may block gutters in these locations and lead to ice ridges on and along portions of the roof. Buildings with planar metal roofs, such as factories, shops, cabins, condos, and ski lodges also typically have very high roofs. Therefore, accessing these gutters to service the gutters and/or to remove ice dams is difficult and potentially dangerous, and the sliding of accumulations of snow may damage the gutters and even tear the gutters from the roof eaves causing substantial damage.
Metal roofs are generally formed of plural large planar or minimally contoured metal panels and often have spaced apart parallel standing seams at adjacent edges of the separate panels. Standing seams are created using the opposing edges of adjacent planar roof panels. A first edge portion of each planar roof panel is bent generally vertically upwardly to form a single thickness upwardly extending lip, and a terminal edge portion of this upwardly extending lip may be “rolled” or otherwise formed to create a dimensionally larger “bulge” or area of increased thickness to enhance engagement with and interconnecting seam portion. (additional configurations are also available). The opposing second edge of the same planar roof panel is similarly bent upwardly, to form a second lip, but this second lip, at the opposing second edge of the roof panel, is formed into a generally T-shaped channel (when viewed in cross section) so that an upper portion of the upwardly bent second lip first bends back toward the first edge of the roof panel and then is rolled, in a curve, back toward the second edge forming a generally planar top portion that has a side to side dimension, and then this second lip is again rolled, in a curve, downwardly and inwardly, and then finally this second lip is bent vertically downwardly so as to extend parallel to, and closely adjacent to the first vertically upwardly extending bend. The result of this sequence of bends is a generally T-shaped (when viewed in cross section) void that can frictionally engage with, and frictionally secure the first edge portion. In this way, each planar roof panel has one half of a cooperating roof seam at each opposing edge portion. The “bulge” of the first edge portion is accommodated within the “void” of the “T-shaped” channel. Such a standing seam configuration (T-shaped) provides material benefits over other types of standing seams, (such as, but not limited to, being substantially self-locking) but this T-shape configuration has also proven to be a difficult configuration for attaching snow brakes, especially when there is a desire to not penetrate, or otherwise form holes in the roof surface which may provide access for water leaks and the like.
As will be understood from the description herein, the first and second edge portions of adjacent planar roof panels overlap so that the generally T-shaped channel of the second edge portion overlaps and interconnects with the first edge portion of an immediately adjacent roof panel. Engagement of the first upwardly extending lip into the second edge T-shaped channel void provides an edge interconnection of the adjacent planar roof panels, and this interconnection may be sealed by known means so as to be water-tight. Further, the cooperating and interconnecting edge portions may be formed during the manufacturing of the roof panels, which eases the installation and interconnection of the planar roof panels. Due to this construction, replacing roof sections when they are damaged or have reached the end of their useful life is simplified. However, like any roof, maintaining the integrity of the roof is critical. Leaks created by any holes in a roof can cause a myriad of problems, from mold to ruined structure and contents. This is a particular concern with metal roofs, since there are typically not several layers of roofing or large overlapping portions of roofing, as there are with asphalt shingle roofs.
The generally T-shaped standing seams, besides making installation and maintenance more convenient, also present an opportunity to install additional apparatus on the roof.